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Florence-Muscle Shoals Travel Articles
- Frommer's Budget Travel Lists Tuscumbia, AL In America’s 10 Coolest Small Towns
- Southern Living Magazine - Make Time For Florence
- Snuggle Up to Fine Bedding
- Visiting The heart Of Dixie: Florence, Alabama Is Truly Ya'll Country
By Warren Resen, Farmer & Rancher Newspaper
My trip as a travel writer was to cover the annual 10-day W.C. Handy Festival, in Florence, Alabama, a city named after the city of the same name in Italy. Florence, AL, holds the W.C. Handy festival in late July every year. It's a big event with more than 300 musical events held. If you are not familiar with his works and wonder why all this hoopla, Handy is considered "The Father of the Blues" starting with his first hit, "The Saint Louis Blues." W. C. Handy was a true son of the South, having been born in a two-room cabin in Florence in 1873.
Frank Lloyd Wright, America's preeminent architect, designed many structures, the largest being the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland. In Florence he had a client who commissioned him to do a private residence. There are many FLW houses around the country. The Frank Lloyd Wright/Rosenbaum House is maintained in pristine condition as a museum, with many of the original furnishings also designed by Wright. Alabama is home of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. In Florida, golf is king. In Alabama, it is an obsession. Alabama has positioned the state's golf courses to be part of its business plan to induce tourists and business to come to the state. And it seems to be working. Unlike many of Florida's individually owned and frequently private golf courses, Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has been named number one value in the country for golf.
The food is very southern. You can get almost anything your want to eat, especially if it is fried. I even had fried cheese cake at Dale's steakhouse and chocolate flavored gravy with my morning biscuits at Country Boy's. Grits with breakfast is a given.
I asked their tourism people to list the highlights of why anyone would want to visit this area. They told me, "It is not for any one thing but the whole package: music, golf, fishing, birding, concerts, art and so much more that Florida can boast - but here it comes with a true southern culture." And, its an easy drive for most Farmer & Rancher reraders. The tourist people believe this is an emerging destination.
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